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Egyptian Bread

The Arabic word for bread is Kubzخـُبز, derived from the
verb Kabazخـَبـَز (bake). Arabs generally are not
big bread eaters, but for Egyptians it's a completely different story: they eat
more bread per capita than any other country in the world. Bread is so important
that the Egyptian word for it is Aeeshعيش, which also means
life.

My Arabic teacher says that, when she was young, a Kabbaezaخـَبّا َز َة would come to the
house to help her mother to make the bread that would last the household a week. Imagine,
a whole day devoted just to making bread.

These days, most people buy their bread from a furnفـُرن -
a small bakery. Most bakeries specialise in one type on bread: one makes 'abyaDأبيـَض (white)
flatbreads, another makes bunniبـُنّي (brown). The brown bread is covered
on both sides with a thin layer of raddaر َدّ َة (bran)

.

They cook the bread in a kind of drive-thru oven:
a baker puts discs of dough onto a conveyor belt at one end, and cooked bread
comes out at the other end a couple of minutes later. From here, it is laid on
woven wooden trays to cool. Some customers buy direct from the bakery: the rest
of the bread is distributed on the wooden trays to street sellers and restaurants.

Some bakers sell a variety of types of bread, for example feenwفينو (short batons of soft bread),
batoon saleehبا َتون سـَليه (salted bread sticks) and
koorwasoonكوروا َسون (croissants). As you can tell from the names, these
types of bread were brought to Egypt by the French during their brief occupation
from 1798 to 1801.

Another type of baker, a fiTeeraفـِطير َة, makes things from
filo pastry: proper Egyptian pizzas are made here, with the filling wrapped up
in layers of filo pastry. They also make a
very rich, layered bread called fiTeerفـِطير, which you can buy plain
or with hilwحـِلو (sweet) or haadi'حا َد ِق (savoury) toppings

Also popular is a round bread about 5cm thick called Aeesh shamsiعيش شـَمسي- sun bread.
It gets its name because it is normally put out on the roof in the warmth of the sun to rise.
You can buy them from street sellers and local shops, but I don't know where they
come from.

If you eat too much bread and are worried about your kirshكـِرش (pot belly),
you might like to try sinnسـِنّ (literally, gravel), which is a dry, hollow bread roll
made mainly of bran. Apparently it is very popular with people who need to lose weight.

Finally, I should mention ru'ae'ر ُقا َق, a thin crispy bread
like a pappadom. It is not eaten on its own, but is used in cooking to make
dishes like ru'aa' bil lahma mafroomaر ُقا َق بـِل لـَحمـَة مـَفرومـَة (meat wrapped in ruqaq) or
'umm Aaliأ ُمّ عـَلي - layers of ruqaq and nuts cooked in milk.
You can buy big packs of dry ruqaaq wrapped in brown paper from the bakery, or
frozen dough in slices from the supermarket.